My passion is helping women write the stories they need to write. I’ve spent the last twenty-some years helping women write, polish, and publish the hard, gritty, beautiful, and awe-inspiring in their lives. I teach Motherhood & Words and lead retreats and women’s writing circles. I am also a writing coach and developmental editor. I’m the author of Ready for Air: A Journey Through Premature Motherhood and co-author of Silent Running, a memoir. I’m currently working on a rom-com.
It’s clear that in this book, we are in the hands of master writing teachers. Miller and Paola’s guide will help any writer, but particularly a beginning writer, find their way into a fruitful writing practice. The book contains essays on craft, inspiring examples, and writing prompts that are sure to launch readers into their own stories.
Though this book is specifically geared toward nonfiction writers, a writer of any genre will find useful and encouraging nuggets of wisdom here.
Demonstrating the range of creative nonfiction from memoir to travel writing to the lyric essay, Tell It Slant combines practical guidance with an illustrative anthology of 34 essays from Margaret Atwood, David Sedaris, E.B. White, Virginia Woolf, and others. The result is a stimulating collection of writing and activities that makes it easy and enjoyable for students to begin to write and to try new modes of writing.
I love that Jarrett Andrew has raised the revision process (which often gets a bad rap) to a spiritual level. This book will help any writer see their work anew and tap into the joy—yes joy!—of revision.
This book encourages writers to listen deeply to their own stories and dig deep until they have found their true beating hearts. Jarrett Andrew presents big-picture and craft revision strategies that will make this a trusted companion for any writer.
Revision is the spiritual practice of transformation - of seeing text and, therefore, the world with new eyes. Done well, revision returns us to our original love.
In LIVING REVISION, award-winning author and teacher, Elizabeth J. Andrew, guides writers through the writing and revision process. With insight and grace, Andrew asks writers to flex their spiritual muscles, helping them to transform their writing as they in turn transform into more curious and reflective human beings. Her expertly honed techniques, exercises and personal examples will help writers invigorate their work and themselves as they engage the human heart within and across…
Do you freeze up when your characters drift into the bedroom? Are you puzzled about how much to say and how to say it? What to call the body parts that bring us so much pleasure and so much anguish?
If you’re writing a novel and there’s a sexual encounter…
I love the way Alison looks to nature to explore the almost unlimited possibilities for structuring a narrative.
She asks readers to move beyond the traditional narrative arc and think instead about how writers employ other structures such as waves, echoes, spirals, and varying narrative speeds to get to the heart of their stories and keep readers turning the page. I have seen this craft book repeatedly open new narrative possibilities for my students.
"How lovely to discover a book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read . . . Alison asserts that the best stories follow patterns in nature, and by defining these new styles she offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive." ―Maris Kreizman, Vulture
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019 | A Poets & Writers Best Books for Writers
As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel― one…
I love the way Sue William Silverman has refused to be silenced and has instead encouraged other writers, particularly women writers, to lean into their vulnerability and claim and craft their voices, on and off the page.
This book conveys both big-picture elements of craft, like voice and structure, and also helps readers think about language and metaphor. It provides so many helpful tools and so much encouragement to both beginning and more advanced writers.
This title shows how to craft compelling art out of personal experience. Everyone has a story to tell. ""Fearless Confessions"" is a guidebook for people who want to take possession of their lives by putting their experiences down on paper - or in a Web site or e-book. Enhanced with illustrative examples from many different writers as well as writing exercises, this guide helps writers navigate a range of issues from craft to ethics to marketing and will be useful to both beginners and more accomplished writers. The rise of interest in memoir recognizes the power of the genre to…
Do you freeze up when your characters drift into the bedroom? Are you puzzled about how much to say and how to say it? What to call the body parts that bring us so much pleasure and so much anguish?
If you’re writing a novel and there’s a sexual encounter…
This latest book by poet Maggie Smith is writing guide meets cheerleading section. I love the way readers get to see her poet's mind at work. And I love the way that this book gives us all, any reader, permission to claim the titles of poet and writer.
There are helpful tips here about the craft of writing, but for me, this book is, at its heart, about encouraging each of us to tap into the power of our own creativity. I love that.
New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert'sBig Magicand Anne Lamott'sBird by Bird.
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own…
In this book, author Kate Hopper is both a master teacher and supportive friend, guiding readers as they write the stories that only they can write. This book will help women find the heart of their writing, learn to use motherhood as a lens through which to write the world, and turn their motherhood stories into art. Inspiring poems, short essays, and Kate’s expert writing prompts will help jump-start any reader’s writing.
Kate has spent the last two decades teaching women to write down the bones of motherhood. Her expert guidance will encourage readers to write the complicated truths of their lives.
